The Social Economics of Health Care (PDF)

With a social economic approach, this collection investigates the role for such principles as equity, fairness, justice, dignity, and community in health care economics and health care systems.

The authors challenge the traditional efficiency and market-based approaches of standard economics regarding how resources should be delivered and distributed in health care. They demonstrate the importance and complexity of ethical questions and social values and show how we may begin to incorporate a range of normative principles in thinking about health-care decision making. Critically examined topics include:
* contemporary health economics and alternatives to its market-based view of health care
* changes in the health care systems of the United Kingdon and Canada, where health care baed on principles of social insurance has been challenged in recent years by introduction of market concepts
* the US medicare system
* the issues of ageing populations and increased longevity and the impact of technological change in health care in connection with genetic testing are explored from the perspective of our social values regarding personal dignity and individual rights.

This important contribution will be of interest to all students and researchers in health economics. It will particularly appeal to those concerned with the institutional foundations of health care systems and professionals involved in public policy deliberations regarding health care systems.